Lords defeat ID cards a fifth time
March 28, 2006 8:55 PM
The House of Lords has again rejected the Labour government's plans to introduce compulsory ID cards. The Peers voted against the scheme and in favour of allowing people to opt out of the card system if it is introduced.
The government however has said it intends to push on, despite all the opposition.
During the General Election the Labour party said the ID card scheme would be voluntary. Yet Home Office Minister Andy Burnham today told the BBC that they had always known the scheme would be compulsory.
Says Lib Dem spokesperson Paula Keaveney:
"At last the cat is out of the bag. Despite everything they said, the government had no intention of making this a voluntary scheme. They quite simply want to be big brother and they are more and more determined to ignore all the expert views."
Lady Park, a former MI6 officer has said that there is no evidence that ID cards will deal with terrorism. This follows other experts who have explained that they will not deal with other crime either.
Information about the various stages of the ID card debate is available on the bbc website at www.bbc.co.uk (look for the politics section). Information about the Lib Dem stance on ID cards, and other national policies, is available at www.libdems.org.uk.
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